Save Up!

You're itching to have your own small business.  You already have the business concept in mind.  The question is, do you have the capital needed to put it up?

We have previously given the tips on how to put up your capital, but if you don't feel comfortable selling your stuff or borrowing money from a bank or a friend, you have to build up your capital the hard but sure way, SAVINGS!

Saving up is the old fashioned way of putting up money for your much needed capital.  This may take a longer time (and a lot of will power!), but the rewards are much more fulfilling.  First, you don't owe anything from anyone.  The money is all yours.  Second, you will avoid the stiff interest rates from cash loans.  Third, you will still keep your valuable possessions, although, some of your stuff really must be disposed off, to have more space inside your home.

The catch here is that, you must have the patience to wait for another year, depending on the amount that you can set aside for your business.  Suppose you can save up to 20% of your monthly income.  For a regular employee who receives roughly ten thousand pesos a month, that means setting aside two thousand pesos monthly.  Deposit the amount of one thousand every 15th and 30th of the month, in a passbook account, to minimize the urge of frequent withdrawal.  The same goes for your whole 13th month pay.  Yes, 100% of your 13th month pay.

After a year, you have saved THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND PESOS!  The amount may go up depending on your income and your control over your finances.  If you're getting twenty thousand monthly, you can save more than SIXTY-EIGHT THOUSAND PESOS!  Indeed, your future is in your hands!

Cash Loan

Unless you can borrow from a close relative or friend, you may also want to consider getting a loan from a bank. Have you ever received a call from accredited service providers of major banks, offering cash loans without collateral? With minimum requirements such as Certificate of Employment and payslip and with the ease of phone transaction, your loan can be processed within a week.  Just be careful on the pieces of information that you give over the phone.  They may use these for other purposes.  When in doubt, go directly to a bank and inquire.  The loans officer will gladly assist you with your needs.

Getting a loan is the fastest way that you can put up the capital to start your own business. One burden though, this comes with an interest rate from 1% to as high as 3.5% per month or 42% per year. For a loan of Php 50,000 at the rate of 3.5%, you may have to shell out Php 1,750 per month for interest payment.

Liquify your Assets

How much is too much?

You have to answer this for yourself, as you look around the house and inside your closet. Take a look and check the things that you can sell. You may have appliances that you think you can live without, old clothes that you have not worn for over a year, old bags that have been gathering dust in the corner of your bedroom, your son’s used school books in previous levels, anything of value which you can dispose.

Then, get your digicam or even your cellphone with camera and take pictures of these possessions. Assess their values and e-mail to everyone in your address book. You can also post these items for sale in the net, thru www.sulit.com.ph , www.olx.com.ph or other vendor sites.  The source of capital for your own business may just be within your reach.

Money for Business

The first thing that you must consider in putting up your own business is your capital. In common language, capital refers to cash and properties that you can set aside and use for investment. You may have a lot of business concepts in mind, but your capital dictates the scale of things that you can start up with. It may not pose much of a problem if you plan to put up a small business, if you have enough savings in the bank, maybe a hundred thousand pesos at least, but to those who will start from scratch, you may consider ways to build up your much needed capital.

Starting a Business

It has been said that the Chinese people have a unique way of bringing up their children.  Unlike Filipinos and other Asians who teach their children to study hard and get good grades in order to get a good job after graduation, Chinese parents teach their kids to become entrepreneurs even at a young age.  This is probably the reason why most successful business tycoons in Asia are of Chinese descent.

Most of us want to engage in business as well, but several hindrances have to be hurdled.  One, we need stability.  For the average employee who goes to work 5-7 days a week, he/she is guaranteed to receive his/her salary come 15th and 30th of the month.  In business, there is no such guarantee.  We need a stable source of income to make both ends meet that's why we have to hold on to our job.  This deprives us of precious time to endeavor into a business plan.  This cycle continues, year in and year out, until we realize that we need to consider other means or ways to generate income.

Two is the lack of resources.  A business plan will only materialize if we have enough capital.  Banks and lending institutions have stiff requirements and qualifications for borrowers.

Three is a concrete business concept.  What type of of business do you really want to engage in?  A food cart, a retail shop, buy and sell?  There are several options available and we need to tap which concept can we best deal with.

Time, capital and concept- these three are essential for any business to materialize.  After considering the three, everything else follows.